Kudos to Citizens Sprague & Robinson for Opposing the NPV Bill #LD-1578

(Click to enlarge.) Here is who controls the choice of who MAINE's Electors are, ONLY IF Maine Lawmakers decide to join the dangerous National Popular Vote scheme. The Electoral College system says that MAINERS should be the ones to decide who MAINE picks to cast MAINE's Votes!

MAINE​
To the Editor - Village Soup.com
 
Kudos to Midcoast citizens Heather Sprague of Cushing and Crystal Robinson of Hope, for going on the record opposing LD 1578, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which seeks a back-door end run around Article V of the Constitution, a short-cut to eliminate the Electoral College.

Maine has said “NO” to this four times since 2008.
 
To debate the Electoral College vs NPVIC is an attempt to equate the known with the purely aspirational. It’s easy to reach for that Smiley Face when we think reality has let us down. Most such arguments stem, I think, from those who view the Electoral College as a dangling appendage rather than a central link in America’s operational governance.

Two Additional Points in Defense of our Electoral College
Sprague, Cushing and others offer compelling arguments for rejecting NPVIC. Permit me to add two more.
 
First, arguments about who won or lost the popular vote always head down a rabbit hole. It's just not the game that's being played, or has ever been played. And every presidential candidate knows this! Did you know, in 1996 Bill Clinton got a smaller percentage of the popular vote (43%) than Donald Trump did in 2015 (46%)? Was there any media bellyaching when the Electoral College delivered Clinton to the Oval Office? Of course not. Their guy won.
 
NPV Violates the Maine Constitution - Only Mainers' Votes May be Counted!
Second, NPVIC has managed to get this far without much attention to the issue of residency requirements stipulated in state constitutions. In fact, each state that has joined NPVIC, including mine, has done so in violation of their State Constitution’s local/state residency requirements for voting. In Maine, the state document stipulates:

•       ART 2, Sec. 1. “Qualifications of electors; written ballot; military servicemen; students. Every citizen of the United States of the age of 18 years and upwards… having his or her residence established in this state ... in the city, town or plantation, where his or her residence has been established…”
•      Maine.gov, Maine's State government website -- is very precise about what constitutes a “resident” of the state.

 
NPVIC would confiscate Maine’s electoral votes and transfer control to the winner of millions of votes from people who specifically do not meet Maine’s residency requirements. In what universe is that a good idea?
 
NPV Does NOT Make Anythng More Equitable
Calls for more “equitable” representation ignore the obvious: POTUS stands for “President of the United STATES.” Every state holds two popular elections for president. State electoral votes, especially in Maine, represent individual voters.

In the 2020 election a Mainer’s vote was one in 819,000. Under NPVIC it would have been one in 158 million. Just exactly how does that make anything, or anyone, more “equitable”?
 
Roberta Schlechter
Volunteer for Michigan-based KEEP OUR 50 STATES
Portland, OR

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